Rumor control

Nov. 9, 2012

ASB 1105 SANDY MANASQUAN A recently renovated summer rental home belonging to Diane and Rob Johnson, of Spring Lake, is coated in sand and shows the water line on the walls after Hurricane Sandy ripped through the Jersey Shore this week. Manasquan homeowners were allowed back to their homes, Sunday, November 4, 2012. ASBURY PARK PRESS STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER/MARY FRANK - MANASQUAN, NJ - NEWS- 11/04/12. / MARY FRANK

Written by

@dracioppi

With power, Internet and other modes of gaining reliable communication still knocked out to thousands of people across Monmouth and Ocean counties, the rumor mill is churning at a steady pace. Falsehoods abound from the sinister to the silly.

The Asbury Park Press is working to silence the scuttlebutt and separate fact from fiction. Below is a running list of rumors making the rounds. Spread the word.

Anybody with tall tales surfacing post-Sandy, please get in contact with staff writer Dustin Racioppi at 732-643-4028 or email dracioppi@njpressmedia.com.

Note: this list is being updated as more information comes in. Scroll to the bottom for the latest.

RUMOR: Bodies, possibly hundreds of them, have been found floating in the water off the barrier island towns, especially the Seaside Heights area.

FACT: The chiefs of police in both Seaside Heights and Toms River have said that no bodies have been recovered on the barrier islands. Press reporters are regularly checking in with local and state authorities to verify the death toll from Sandy, which rose to 30 on Wednesday, according to State Police.

Monmouth County’s first post-storm death came on Sunday, when a 61-year-old Long Branch man passed away, Sgt. Brian Polite said. Investigators were still investigating the cause of the death on Monday, making it unclear if it was caused by the storm. His name was withheld pending notification of his family, Long Branch Police Capt. Jason Roebuck said.

In Ocean County there have been five deaths since Sandy – in Brick, Little Egg Harbor (2), Lacey and Stafford – but local departments could not confirm if all the deaths were a direct result of the storm.

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All were included in the State Police’s storm-related death count.

RUMOR: There are more than two dozen people unaccounted for in Sea Bright.

FACT: Mayor Dina Long said on Monday morning that everybody is accounted for. There was a car that submerged in the Shrewsbury River, but nobody was found inside, she said. For periodic updates from Long, follow her on Twitter: @seabrightmayor.

RUMOR: FEMA is paying volunteers to clean up debris in New York and New Jersey.

RUMOR: Out-of-state utility crews are being turned away from energy restoration here because they are non-union.

FACT: False. In fact, 550 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 400 have been working “around the clock” with Jersey Central Power & Light and Exelon’s Oyster Creek power plant in Lacey, president Ed Stroup said, as reported by The Press on Friday. Many of the workers supposedly turned away were from Alabama. In response, Alabama Power posted a message to its website that it had “not been turned away from anywhere” and that “our employees are proudly representing us in several states that have been affected, and have received a warm reception everywhere they’ve been.”

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JCP&L President Don Lynch said the rumors were “totally not true” and that the company and IBEW were accepting non-union workers from across the country.

RUMOR: People are dressing up as utility workers and firefighters and going door-to-door through neighborhoods in Brick and either robbing residents or trying to gain access to homes.

FACT: There have not been any such reports to Brick police, and no arrests for burglary or looting have been made, Sgt. Keith Reinhard said. For the most part, he added, utility workers have no reason to enter a home for work.

There was one report of three or four men dressed in fire department t-shirts walking around someone’s property, but no arrests were made, Reinhard said.

Report suspicious activity to the police and do not take matters into your own hands, he said.

RUMOR: Residents will not be allowed back into Seaside Heights or Seaside Park on Tuesday, as they had hoped.

FACT: True. Both Seaside Heights and Seaside Park announced on their respective websites Monday that access to the towns was restricted to essential personnel only. Seaside Heights’ website said officials hope to have a plan on Wednesday to allow limited access by Friday.

RUMOR: Homes in the Mantoloking Shores community in Brick must grab a suitcase full of belongings before the homes are condemned.

FACT: Half-true. Brick police are letting residents to their homes in sections to gather their belongings. This is phase one. Sgt Keith Reinhard said some areas will eventually be condemned and some homes may need to be knocked down, but there are no plans available yet. The next phase will be to try to get residents back to their homes with contractors and/or insurance adjusters and to winterize their homes. No schedule for that has been made, Reinhard said.

RUMOR: FEMA is reimbursing people for power generators they purchased during the power loss/

FACT: Half-true. The agency will reimburse people who purchased generators during and directly after Sandy, but only to those who required power for medical emergencies, “not because people needed it for electricity,” spokeswoman Robin Smith said.

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RUMOR: Shrewsbury is receiving power from a JCP&L substation in Sea Bright.

FACT: False. Mayor Donald Burden said in an email that the power company is working to repair and run “feeder” lines at a substation in neighboring Little Silver, as well as repairing lines directly to some homes. He said JCP&L was targeting power to be restored to more homeowners “in the next couple of days.” As of Wednesday night, 34 percent of the town’s customers were without power, according to the company’s outage map.